{"id":385,"date":"2013-03-11T19:36:08","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T19:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.canyonvelo.org\/?p=385"},"modified":"2020-04-22T01:05:16","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T01:05:16","slug":"solvang-century-a-day-to-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canyonvelo.org\/index.php\/2013\/03\/11\/solvang-century-a-day-to-remember\/","title":{"rendered":"Solvang Century &#8211; A Day To Remember"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Sue Griesbach<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-right: 10px; float: left;\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/ArticlePics\/Scenic2LR.jpg\" alt=\"Scenic2LR\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/>Canyon Velo had a sizeable contingent in the annual Solvang Century held on March 10. For some, this is an annual trek north to escape the hectic freeway-laden world of Los Angeles, spend some quality time with a loved one, and breathe in fresh air filled with the scents of Danish pastries and candy. For others, it&#8217;s an early season test of one&#8217;s strength and endurance. A low-key way to test the legs. How are they compared to last spring? How am I doing compared to some of the other California studs and studdettes?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I can only speak for myself in saying that Solvang is and has always been one of the finest century rides we have in the area. There&#8217;s something for everyone here, with long flat stretches, heart-stomping climbs, and some breathtaking descents. All in the midst of cows, horses, vineyards, and about 5000 other like-minded cyclists. If you don&#8217;t know the people riding beside you, you probably will by the end of the ride. And there&#8217;s plenty of opportunity for camaraderie with old and new friends with lots of great restaurants in the area.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-left: 10px; float: right;\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/ArticlePics\/FirstRestStopLR.jpg\" alt=\"FirstRestStopLR\" width=\"250\" height=\"205\" \/>By the third paragraph, you&#8217;re probably asking yourself &#8220;ok, is she going to say something about the ride or not?&#8221; Here&#8217;s what I can tell you from my somewhat limited vantage point in the middle of the pack. The weather was pretty dang breezy, but skies were sunny most of the day. I&#8217;m pretty sure the first canyon road (Avenue of Flags) has not been repaved since they originally asphalted over the wagon trail there in 1887. We battled a headwind for about the first half of the ride, which included most of the serious hills, and a pass through the Vandenberg AFB where riders had to stop and show ID to continue onto the base. Some (I won&#8217;t name names) forgot their ID&#8217;s and had to talk their way in or have their friends vouch that to the best of all knowledge they were not terrorists. By the &#8220;lunch&#8221; stop in Santa Maria, we had a screamer tailwind. Foxen Canyon was fun fun fun! I couldn&#8217;t hang for long with the NorCal boys that went by me but I sure enjoyed riding it, and thought back fondly of Back In The Day when we were part of a group of tandems on a mission to do as much damage as we could. The finish line was there before I knew it, and thanks to some hard training rides in February with Margaret H, I wasn&#8217;t too sore the next day.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-right: 10px; float: left;\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/ArticlePics\/TheEnd2LR.jpg\" alt=\"TheEnd2LR\" width=\"250\" height=\"184\" \/>We woke Sunday to clear sunny skies and a dead calm. While a guy at our hotel set off to fly his very cool model helicopter, we headed out with a group toward Los Olivos and the Michael Jackson Neverland ranch. It was an absolutely picture perfect day, and a fitting end to a great weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Sue Griesbach Canyon Velo had a sizeable contingent in the annual Solvang Century held on March 10. For some, this is an annual trek north to escape the hectic freeway-laden world of Los Angeles, spend some quality time with a loved one, and breathe in fresh air filled with the scents of Danish pastries &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/canyonvelo.org\/index.php\/2013\/03\/11\/solvang-century-a-day-to-remember\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Solvang Century &#8211; A Day To Remember&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clubnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canyonvelo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canyonvelo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canyonvelo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canyonvelo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canyonvelo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canyonvelo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386,"href":"https:\/\/canyonvelo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions\/386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canyonvelo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canyonvelo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canyonvelo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}